The Archbishops' pastoral letter

Here's the text of a pastoral letter the Archbishops sent to the church immediately after the passage of the 'Way Forward' resolution:

The Archbishops | 14 May 2014

Dear Bishops,

PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOPS

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed, alleluia!

In the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, we recognise and live by the continuity of the tradition which reaches back into the history of the Patriarchs and Prophets, as well as the fulfilment of great promises and new revelation. This extraordinary witness is a constant reminder to the Church of God in every age of Christ's presence in our midst, and Scripture's commandments to love God and neighbour.

You will read in the attached document (please read the entire document), that the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia is both affirming the traditional doctrine of marriage, exploring the recognition of those presently in life-long monogamous same-gender relationships, and seeking a process and structure to enable the possibility of a rite for blessing life-long monogamous same-gender relationships for those who wish to offer this rite.

We also are apologising unreservedly to the LGBT community where the church has not acted in a loving way.

To do this will require time and a huge amount of work by many people across our Three Tikanga Church, including the articulation of the theology of ordination to Anglican orders, and the theology of marriage, and may result in structural change to allow both for those who do not see their way free to accept change of the nature being asked for with doctrinal integrity, and those who do.

All that is described above is not permissible in every part of this Province and we again recognise the different cultural norms and legal obligations of the Three Tikanga of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

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